Yet this good effect that visit had upon my father, who was then in
the Commission of the Peace, that it disposed him to a more
favourable opinion of and carriage towards those people when they
came in his way, as not long after one of them did. For a young
man, who lived in Buckinghamshire, came on a first-day to the church
(so called) at a town called Chinner, a mile from Crowell, having,
it seems, a pressure on his mind to say something to the minister of
that parish. He being an acquaintance of mine, drew me sometimes to
hear him, as it did then. The young man stood in the aisle before
the pulpit all the time of the sermon, not speaking a word till the
sermon and prayer after it were ended, and then spoke a few words to
the priest, of which all that I could hear was, "That the prayer of
the wicked is abomination to the Lord, and that God heareth not
sinners."

Somewhat more, I think, he did say, which I could not distinctly
hear for the noise the people made; and more probably he would have
said, had he not been interrupted by the officers, who took him into
custody, and led him out in order to carry him before my father.

When I understood that, I hastened home, that I might give my father
a fair account of the matter before they came. I told him the young
man behaved himself quietly and peaceably, spoke not a word till the
minister had quite done his service, and that what he then spoke was
but short, and was delivered without passion or ill language. This
I knew would furnish my father with a fair ground whereon to
discharge the man if he would.

And accordingly when they came, and made a high complaint against
the man (who said little for himself), my father, having examined